NASA's test Saturday of an LDSD

[Zach Caldwell]

This is an article about NASA testing a new system LDSD for future manned flights to Mars.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/28/us/nasa-flying-saucer-test/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[seabird]

I hope that we continue the space program, but the outlook looks very grim. The present administration has cut the funding down to subsistence levels as it has for anything that is not on their list of pet projects. I know that importance is all in the eyes of the beholder and there are many things that Mr. Obama does not consider important. I can accept that, while not liking it, however, many of the things he considers important make me wonder about his priorities. The things he apparently considers unimportant, scare the HELL outta me. I know that I come from a different generation than most of the pols in Washington, but I vividly remember the attack at Pearl Harbor and I watched my own Father march off to war. I was involved in the beginning edges of Viet Nam myself and saw things that turned my blood cold. I narrowly escaped service in Korea, as I was still in college.

 

Our world is NOT a nice place and the ONLY reason we have seen very little of its terrors within our own country is because we MAKE them stay away. We are rapidly losing that ability, we no longer have control of the seas that surround us and we do not have sufficient land forces to secure our land borders, let alone our sea coasts.

 

 

Our country and its people are totally unprepared for almost any emergency, including invasion. Instead of toppling the twin towers, had the terrorists merely landed their planes on 9/11, they could have taken over the place. Our Navy, while it still has some outstanding features, is now a hollow force. Where once we had over 600 ships of all kinds, we now have less than 200. We have allowed our Merchant Marine, once the largest civilian fleet the world has ever seen, to deteriorate to less than a dozen ships. We are totally dependent upon foreign nations to carry our freight, bring us our food and oil, our clothing and our electronic toys. Were they to stop, the lights would go out over much of the nation and we would all get very hungry and be reduced to walking wherever we went. It would be easy to blame apathy, but that is too easy an answer. What we have done is to allow charlatans and hucksters to gain control of our government and political processes. We are too busy tending to our personal interests to be concerned about our country.

 

If I am making any of you uncomfortable, angry or annoyed, I certainly hope so. If you are any of these things, I have succeeded in arousing you away from the droning game shows or game playing on your handheld.

 

Charles Bird

SeaBird